Pda's

[wvhunter74]

Ok I know nothing about them what ones is good and what do I need to know about when buying one?Are the ones on ebay normaly good?

[89SC]

I bought a Palm Tungsten E2 off Ebay and am very happy with it. I only have a 512mb card in it but it's good enough to load the nearest 300 caches a hold a bunch of pictures.

[Aquacache]

It all depends on what you want to do with it (you knew that was coming, didn't you? ).

I bought the Palm T|X a couple years ago and love it ... most of the time. I picked it mainly for the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capability. The Wi-Fi advantages are pretty much self-explanatory (e-mail, web browsing, etc) and the Bluetooth is very handy for connecting to a Bluetooth GPSr. Add CacheMate and a mapping program (I use Delorme Street Atlas and Topo) and it can be a complete, standalone geocaching system.

One downside to all these features is the expense; especially if you're planing to take it into the woods. If you drop an unprotected PDA, you risk damaging (or destroying) an expensive piece of hardware. Most GPSr's are waterproof ... most PDA's are not. And great big fancy color touchscreens are not very rock-friendly. I have an aluminum case for mine and it has saved the T|X from more than one bounce off of some rocks and paved parking lots.

If you're not comfortable hauling that expensive PDA on the trails, a less expensive version (with fewer features) might be a better choice. I've read of many people throwing CacheMate on a $10 PDA off eBay so they can have cache descriptions and hints while on the hunt with very little concern for the safety of the hardware. You'd still need a handheld GPSr, but I carry one of those with me as well anyway.

Hope this helps muddy the water a little more.

[89SC]

Sometimes I wish I'd gone with the next model up so I had Wi-Fi but as Aquacache said, hauling expensive equipment through the woods makes me nervous. I'm already carrying the gpsr, which I recently upgraded, and a digital camera. I've been wanting to upgrade the camera too but have the same thoughts. I bought the camera as a factory refurbished model. If I drop it in a creek it'll be bad but not as bad as dropping a digital SLR would be.

[Spotty Spotty Pony Girl]

well at the risk of being mocked (go ahead, bring it). I have an iPAQ which is also wifi /bluetooth. I run cachemate and DeLorme on it. I don't have the fancy schmancy titanium case. I have a clear plastic case hinged at the top (I just managed to break the hinge). But it is nice because I can see the screen all the time. Basically when I'm on the trail I just put it in my pocket if I have cross a stream or scramble up / over something. The only downside is there is no place on it to put a lanyard.

Unlike most of the folks here, I use it as my main GPSr <particularly since I've loaned my blue garmin out> and have done so for probably about a year. My bluetooth GPSr is a Holux GPSlim that's 2 years old.

[Rock_Rat]

well at the risk of being mocked (go ahead, bring it). I have an iPAQ

No need for mocking, you can install Linux on an iPAQ and then it's cool.

If you already have a GPS and don't need the fancy features like blue tooth look for something like a used M125. I've had mine for years. They can be had cheap so breaking them isn't a big deal.

[scoutingwv]

Had a Palm III, worked great.

Outgrew the Palm III and got an iPaq. Worked great.

iPaq died, got another Palm. Worked great.

Cell phone needed upgraded. Ditched the Palm and the old phone and got a Blackberry.

Awesome. Especially in conjunction with the old XJKS8000000' and mobipocket.

[Spotty Spotty Pony Girl]

Cell phone needed upgraded. Ditched the Palm and the old phone and got a Blackberry.

Awesome. Especially in conjunction with the old XJKS8000000' and mobipocket.

which blackberry do you have? it's almost time for our cell contract to be up and I'm looking around at phones again - since my work BB doesn't have GPSr capabilities and other fun things are disabled (yes, I know...my life is tragic).

[scoutingwv]

An 8830 World Edition.

ahhh ... digital goodness ...

[wvhunter74]

Ok So since I got a gpsr already and I dont really need to get online whie Im out What is some of the better cheeper ones basicly just to load all the cach info on

[Aquacache]

Ok So since I got a gpsr already and I dont really need to get online whie Im out What is some of the better cheeper ones basicly just to load all the cach info on

I'm only familiar with the Palm's (although I did touch SSPG's iPaq the other day and I think that may have caused a virus to spring up on my Palm ) and if you can find anything from a Palm III, Palm V, m-series, Tungsten series, etc, it will work well. If you are wanting to use a program such as MobiPocket to view the cache description (with pictures), you'll probably want to go with a color screen, but CacheMate works just fine on a monochrome. The older Palm III's go for next to nothing on eBay.

[Spotty Spotty Pony Girl]

I'm only familiar with the Palm's (although I did touch SSPG's iPaq the other day and I think that may have caused a virus to spring up on my Palm )

I seem to recall your Palm locking up of its own accord, previous to the touching of my iPaq

and if you can find anything from a Palm III, Palm V, m-series, Tungsten series, etc, it will work well. If you are wanting to use a program such as MobiPocket to view the cache description (with pictures), you'll probably want to go with a color screen, but CacheMate works just fine on a monochrome. The older Palm III's go for next to nothing on eBay.

we did get my dad a Palm for paperless caching purposes for father's day a few years ago. I think we only spent $100 or so since he only wanted the "read the cache description" option.

[scoutingwv]

Ok So since I got a gpsr already and I dont really need to get online whie Im out What is some of the better cheeper ones basicly just to load all the cach info on

Palm.

[wvcoalcat]

Ok So since I got a gpsr already and I dont really need to get online whie Im out What is some of the better cheeper ones basicly just to load all the cach info on

Palm.

I agree a palm is probably the cheapest way to go paperless. However, I seem to be limited as to the amount of data I can store on mine.

[scoutingwv]

I think WVHunter's PDA would more likely be used like this: